Tonight on the National Geographic Channel is the premeire of a new show called Fight Science. What they've done is partnered martial artists from various disciplines with safety engineers from the automotive industry in order to scientifically measure the effects of martial combat on the human body using crash test dummies, accelerometers and other scientific equipment. The show focuses primarily on the eastern arts, but they do have a boxer in the beginning .

Overall the show isn't bad; they start of with empty hand, and then move into weapons. It has a Mythbusters feel to it, as they take on myths associated with martial arts and fights in general and putting them under scientific scrutiny, using some great graphics put together using motion capture to illustrate their findings. My one disapointment in the show was when they looked at swords; they seemed to be retelling some of the more common myths about them. But overall it was a good show.Rob Zamoida
"When your life is on the line, you want to make use of all your tools. No warrior should be willing to die with his swords at his sides, without having made use of his tools."
-Miyamoto Mushashi, Gorin no Sho

I would give it a mixed review. In all honesty, I would see this as more of a myth maker than a myth buster. The data they gathered on some of the strikes was interesting, and the CGI clips were good, but there was still a bit of circus atmosphere. Some of the participants were clear hollywood status climbers trying to get into action movies. The TKD guy just didnt seem like a balanced individual.

Guro Dan Inosanto was the highlight of the show for me. To paraphrase Guro Dan, he said that power was only part of the equation of effectiveness. Footwork, angles, timing, and other factors make up the whole of the art.

A few months ago I was involved in a terrific discussion on the ARMA forum about cutting targets. I guess Crusade era Egyptians used sort of a remoldable clay for a cutting target, and I was curious about how ballistic gelatin would serve as a soft cutting medium. This program actually went and made a dummy out of ballistic gelatin, but the folks they had testing it had poor quality blades, and no practical sword instruction beyond kata and forms. The Katana segment didnt seem so bad (besides a bit of transcendent awe), but I know little about Katana compared to jian and dao, and they underperformed on the test.

The show was still good entertainment, I would still classify it in a diamond in the rough sort of way. Had to pick favorite segments out of the whole.

Although a lot of street tactics are not allowed, such as small joint manipulation, finger gouging, strikes to vital areas such as the throat and neck areas and many more tactics that are either lethal or maiming in their design. A real good show to watch would be the "UFC" Ultimate Fighting Championships". Keith Hackney who is known as the Giant Killer for his TKO over 6' 8" 616 lb # 2 World Sumo "Emanuel Yarborough" in UFC 3 at 1 minute 59 seconds of the first round, is the man who awarded me my black belt in October of 2004 for "karate" at which time I also succumbed to spinal arthritis.
The UFC is as close to reality as it gets and it has proved what works and what does not. Such as those beautiful high kicks of the Tae Kwon Do expert does not work when his leg is grabbed and his knee snapped sideways while his fancy kick is up in the air.
If you are strong in stand up and weak on the ground, God help you if the man your fighting is a ground expert and he gets you there, because your in his world then! Such as myself, I am strong in stand up but my weakness would be on the ground in comparison to stand up skills which were very honed at one time before I started falling apart.

Sincerely,

Bob

Below is a picture of Keith Hackney and I from last year.Attachment: 41.89 KB [ Download ]

The 'Fight Science' show aired again tonight. Though I'm clearly being biased, it would've been nice to bring in some weapons originating from Europe. For instance, when the show starting discussing swords, there was much emphasis on the efficiency and fatality of thrusting -- well, no sword thrusts like a rapier (just like no sword cuts like a katana).

It would also have been cool to see someone bludgeon one of those test-dummies with the pommel or cross of a Medieval longsword and examine the resulting "trauma." Or for that matter, a flail or a war hammer!

Overall, a neat program, though more entertaining than informative. I gotta get me some of those throwing stars! "The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." Thomas Jefferson

It would also have been cool to see someone bludgeon one of those test-dummies with the pommel or cross of a Medieval longsword and examine the resulting "trauma." Or for that matter, a flail or a war hammer!

When they were working the dummy over with the staff, all I could think was "I want the numbers from a pole hammer."To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes. - --Tacitus on Germania

The 'Fight Science' show aired again tonight. Though I'm clearly being biased, it would've been nice to bring in some weapons originating from Europe. For instance, when the show starting discussing swords, there was much emphasis on the efficiency and fatality of thrusting -- well, no sword thrusts like a rapier (just like no sword cuts like a katana).

It would also have been cool to see someone bludgeon one of those test-dummies with the pommel or cross of a Medieval longsword and examine the resulting "trauma." Or for that matter, a flail or a war hammer!

Overall, a neat program, though more entertaining than informative. I gotta get me some of those throwing stars!

I definately agree that if one is to study the effects of thrusting you need to use a rapier, you could even compare the thrust of a rapier to that of other swords. However I must say I don't think that "no sword cuts like a Katana" is accurate. A katana is certainly great for cutting but so are many other swords. I've seen no evidence that a katana, in general, is any better at cutting than a sabre or any other curved sword. In fact if your talking about sheer cutting power then surely a falcion would be more powerful.IN NOMINE DOMINE
IN NOMINE CONVIVOR

I just don't know. The CGI was neat, but some of the stuff seemed a bit hyped to say the least. I did not get to see the free handed stuff. That said some of the claims they made here and there seemed a bit of a stretch to me. I certainly don't have information to counter them, but I would really like to have seen references for some of the stuff they presented as pure fact."Our life is what our thoughts make it"
-Marcus Aurelius

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum